Taylor: Displaying enemies’ skulls not wrong

IN AN unusual defence against war crimes charges, former Liberian president Charles Taylor has told judges that he saw nothing wrong with displaying the skulls of slain enemy soldiers at roadblocks.

Taylor, 61, insisted he was trying to bring peace and the rule of law to Liberia, as he testified in his own defence on the third full day of his trial.

He is charged with 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity for allegedly supporting rebels in neighbouring Sierra Leone who unleashed a campaign of terror in their country’s 1991-2002 civil war. Some 500,000 people were killed, mutilated or victims of other atrocities.

Taylor has pleaded not guilty to all charges at the Special Court for Sierra Leone, calling the allegations lies and rumours.

Taylor’s 1989-90 invasion of Liberia and his ascent to power in a seven-year civil war were a prelude to his involvement in the brutal Sierra Leone conflict.

Taylor is not on trial for offences in Liberia. But his lawyer, Courtenay Griffiths, told the judges that Taylor’s testimony about the campaign to oust his predecessor, Liberian president Samuel K Doe, was meant to counter the image drawn by prosecutors of a pattern of brutality.

“This is the suggestion at the heart of the prosecution case: that Mr Taylor was from the outset a bloodthirsty warlord with no belief in the rule of law or human rights and it seems necessary to address that suggestion head on,” Griffiths said.

Taylor dismissed as “nonsense” the allegation that his troops disembowelled their enemies and tied their intestines across roads. He also denied recruiting children as fighters.

One of his former commanders, Joseph “Zigzag” Marzah, said Taylor drove past such scenes. Taylor called that “a blatant, diabolical lie”.

After listening to 91 prosecution witnesses over the past 18 months, Taylor said people had referred to his forces as if they “were brutes and savages: We are not. I am not.”

Still, Taylor conceded that skulls of Liberian soldiers were displayed at roadblocks in 1990.

“They were enemy skulls and we didn’t think that symbol was anything wrong,” he said. “I did not consider it bad judgment. I did not order them removed.”

He also conceded atrocities were committed in Liberia by “bad apples” and renegade soldiers.